business x learning x social media

August 15, 2010

Last week you saw me use, review and recommend Easy Video Player as a powerful new entry in video-based marketing and video publishing tools. I won't go into the details in this post since I've already written about it here and here.

In this post, I just wanted to update you about it now officially being on my "Mel Recommends list." Find it, and other marketing / productivity applications I've endorsed in the topline menu bar above.

If you have questions about how I've used any of the applications listed there, drop me a line. (No technical support questions, please... unless, of course, you're an existing client. In which case researching your technical support question with the vendor will likely already be bundled in with our coaching or training arrangement.)

Otherwise, feel free to ask me about how I use the application itself, strategies for use, productivity applications or marketing techniques.

What are your thoughts? Have you used any of the applications and/or services in my list. What has been your experience?

August 13, 2010

This post is a follow up to the one I made yesterday about a social media marketing video player publishing tool I've been evaluating. The reason I was so jazzed about it was that, among other features, it allows you to easily and flexibly put an opt-in signup form directly in the frame of the video. But, there was one piece I was still trying to figure out...

That was the part in the extract below. I was mulling over whether or not you could essentially set up "list-building outposts" by allowing visitors to swipe the embed code from your video and post it in their own website or blog.

August 12, 2010

Maybe you're one of the few, the proud, the people who've learned to add a video to your website. But, do you know how to add a website into your video?

Well, okay. Maybe I'm stretching a bit to say that an opt-in form can technically be an entire website. But, to the extent that it's all html, right...?

My point is, wouldn't it be slick to be able to add an opt-in form inside your video?

In that way, as soon as the video is done playing, it displays an opt-in form within the frame of the video player so that your visitor can immediately perform the call to action you make in the video?

This isn't actually a new technique. I was doing stuff like this a few years ago. Fact is, opt-in forms, buttons and redirect actions associated with a web video has been do-able for a few years. But, very few peeps actually do it in regular practice because the code-level know-how of pulling that off has been a bit, well, cumbersome. Some software programs facilitated some of that for you, but by and large it was all very clunky.

In fact, since it's basically html code, so when you start thinking along the lines of embedding a PayPal Buy button, or automatic redirects to a shopping cart page or some other landing page, the marketing implications become even more powerful.

From an eLearning perspective, short of having your own LMS (Learning Management System), you can implement a rudimentary sequence of training videos where the user automatically redirects to the next video in the sequence either automatically or after the push of a button that appears within the frame of the video player.

I'm impressed, but a couple of drawbacks.

The application is essentially platform independent (it works with Macs just as well as PCs) because the software installs on your server.

There are a couple of drawbacks. One is that I'd like to see the ability for bulk uploads of videos to my Amazon S3 video storage. But, until they get this enhancement implemented, it's easily worked around by simply using an FTP program to upload your videos to the appropriate storage folder ("bucket") on Amazon S3.

And the other drawback is that I wish the software would allow for my visitors to swipe the embed code and place it on their site (which it allows), but in such a way that the embedded video then also displays my opt-in form on their site when the video completes its play.

Now, I want you to pause and think about that for a moment. When the marketing / lead generation aspect of that sinks in, your eyes should appropriately widen. That's almost unfair in its power.

Essentially, if the software were to in fact work that way, that would mean that anybody who has your video embedded in their site will essentially operate as a list-building outpost for you.

Note: I can't definitively say yet that this is NOT the case. I swapped emails with tech support briefly. They seem to imply that it's supposed to work exactly the way I described above. I need to follow up on this because I haven't yet been able to make it behave in that way. But if they're right, this is huge.

In any case, what's already in the package that I've been experimenting with this week has me sufficiently impressed that I finally affiliated-up and am endorsing it with my signature. I do that only rarely.

If you want to see a working version of it, click here. You'll be taken to a landing page I set up as an affiliate site. I also made a follow up video screencast that shows you how I use the software to place my aWeber webform into one of the videos.

June 17, 2010

The Pew Internet & American Life Project's recent release of The Future of the Internet is well-worth a look. If you're a time-constrained "A-"type personality, then let me suggest at least flipping through the deck quickly and visit the key themes beginning on slides 16 & 17.But, if you're even more anxious to "just get to the bottom line" about the future of the internet, then here are some of the highlights that jumped out at me.

Key Highlights (paraphrased)

On knowledge and education: - Nicholas Carr was wrong - Google will not make us stupid.- New literacies will be required. The fourth "R" will be "Retrieval".- Technology isn't the problem here. It is people's inherent character traits.- There will be a new emphasis in media creation.- "Screen literacy" will become important.

On hot new gadgets:- Mobile connectivity and location-based services will grow.

On privacy:- The law and new regulations will give people some privacy protections even though they are required to disclose more.- Confidentiality and autonomy will replace yearning for anonymity.- Reputation management and "information responsibility" will emerge.

On the impact upon institutions:- Data will be the platform for change- Workarounds, facilitated by social media, will be common

On access (cloud vs. desktop):- The advantages of ubiquitous access and mobility will trump other things.- Most will work on internet-based applications.- Security problems will results--and new kinds of privacy disputes are inevitable.

If you're new here and you liked this, or any of the articles on this site -- subscribe!If your organization needs help transforming classroom-based training for the web -- contact me. (Camtasia? Articulate? Captivate? Final Cut? Yeah, I do that.)

Now, while I'm not yet prepared to give you a glowing recommendation for ixWebhosting, I can say that I am comfortable giving credit to their customer / tech support staff. In all the times I've had to call them in the last couple of months --and there have been many--their tech support call center team members have been very helpful, highly responsive, and eager to fix the issues I've had. In at least one instance, their Customer Service Supervisor called me personally on a weekend to make sure a performance issue our website was having with their database server had a path forward. (Ultimately it was resolved by migrating us to another database server. All facilitated through the Customer Support team.)

In any case, this new "Personal Support Hero" program ixWebHosting has just put in place is more evidence that, while ixWebHosting may have some infrastructure issues they still need to work through, their customer support team is keeping their eye on the ball.

I'm impressed with this customer support program for the following reasons:

Responsibility. It assigns a specific individual who is responsible for ME, personally.

Accountability. The individual assigned to me has accountability via a name (Danny Mullins), a face, a video, and contact information via both the traditional telephone channels, and popular social media channels (i.e., twitter, facebook, skype)

Personable. The program also makes effective use of video to introduce my "personal support hero" to me. This helps immensely in personalizing the relationship by providing background information of Danny's skills, interests, passions and aspirations. (Nice touch.)

In summary, this new social media-enabled program gets two thumbs-up from me for its vision and its initial execution. Now, I'm anxious to see how it unfolds moving forward.

Those of you who visit this blog often, know that I'm a big believer that the mortar binding all our social media activities together is our ability to effectively and efficiently listen to specific keywords and phrases within the buzz of the social sphere. Our ability to do that helps us focus our attention and effectively engage customers, prospects and friends so we know when and where to respond quickly and appropriately.

April 26, 2010

That was one of the questions we batted around during last Saturday's SMMOC meetup when we were discussing Facebook's new bid to "rule the web" as it gets even more social. The gist of the discussion was around Facebook's recent announcement at its F8 developer conference about a protocol to let content publishers tag their content while also adding one of Facebook's "Like" buttons to the site. The idea being that as you, my Facebook friend, goes about your merry day surfing different web sites, will have the ability to push the "Like" button on articles, products, restaurants, etc. that you happen across on the web. In the meantime, your friends may also be doing the same thing.Well, Facebook's goal is to store this information and allow content partners to use it in a way that allows them to tailor a more "personalized online experience" for you, me and our other Facebook friends.What do you think about that? Creepy? A good thing? Good for business?

Our discussion at my meetup last Saturday was mixed. There was general agreement that privacy issues are (once again) a concern. I mean, imagine you stumbling across a site --purely by accident, I'm sure-- that sells black leather, uh, paraphernalia. Only to then find dialog at the bottom clearly stating that, "Mel 'Likes' this". (??!) Hmm...maybe not something I would've wanted my friends to necessarily know.

I realize one rebuttal could be to say, well, "Mel, you fool, knowing how the 'Like' button works, why would you press it on such a site?" But, therein lies my point. WILL everyone know how the wizard behind the veil of the "Like" button actually works? Will most people understand that they have to pro-actively tweak their privacy settings on Facebook? Do you understand that a "default" standard is being set that requires us to take action to opt-out of such publicity, rather than taking action to opt-in. It's like this, unless you take action, your preferences will likely be public. (This is in contrast to specifically choosing to make your preferences public. There's a difference. Opt-in vs. opt-out.)

Now, all that said, I actually come down on the side of the fence that sees it as a generally favorable trend. But, then again, I'm a content publisher.

What do you think? More to the point, have you checked your privacy settings lately?

March 14, 2010

I'm writing this post to answer a question my friend, Jennifer, asked about how I formatted a custom signature on my Mac (via Mac's native email client called Mail). And to be able to do it in such a way that doesn't distort or otherwise get discombobulated on the receiving end. The snapshot below is what we're shooting for.

The snapshot below is what we hope to mitigate as much as possible on the receiving end of your email.

Rather than keeping the process a secret between Jennifer and me, I figured some of you might have the same question. So, I thought I'd share it with the rest of ya'll, as well. To make it easy, I included both a video (below) and then also summarized the steps in a procedure list (further below). By the way, you can also watch the video in HD directly on the YouTube server. (Just double-click the video.) That'll give you a bigger video to see all the details. Let me know if you find it helpful.

First things first.

The steps to follow presupposes the following:

A. You have access to a web or FTP site to which you can upload your images and reference them over the web.

B. You have the basic skills to create a simple html page. (Or, at the very least, you have access to such knowledge via the skills of a friend.) It will help to have a software package like Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage.

C. You are trying to create your custom signature for Mac Mail.

D. You have the Safari web browser installed on your Mac.

(Double-click it to watch it in HD.)

Steps to follow.

Assuming you have the above three conditions locked, here are the steps I follow to create a signature like the one at the top of this post such that it shows up in your Mac/Mail email signature:

The Preamble. (Do this in your html software package.)

1. Take all the graphics you intend to use in your signature and ftp them to a folder on your website.

2. Use an html software package like Dreamweaver or MS Frontpage to create the look and feel of the email signature you want to have. Use the software's features to display the email graphics via "IMG" references to the file on your web host.

3. Save your email signature design as an html file. (For purposes of this exercise, I've given my signature design the name "myemailsig.html"

The Crux of the Matter. (Do this in the Safari web browser.)

4. Now launch the Safari web browser. From Safari, select File/Open File from the menu bar.

5. Navigate to the location on your computer where you saved the html file for your email signature. Select the Open button. Your email signature will appear as a web page in your Safari browser.

6. Now, save your email signature as a webarchive file. To do this, select File/Save As... on the menu bar of your Safari web browser. Make sure to select "Web Archive" in the Format picklist of the Save As... window. (For my example, I've assigned the name "myemailsig.webarchive")

Make a "placeholder" email signature in Mac Mail.

Summary: In the next steps, we're going to use Mac Mail to create a new "placeholder" for your email signature within the Mac Mail file structure. We'll then copy the system-generated filename for this placeholder and then use it to rename the webarchive file you created in Step 6 above. As a final step, we'll copy the renamed webarchive and replace the system-generated signature file in Mac Mail. (Got it?)

7. Open Mac Mail.

8. Create a new "placeholder" signature. To do this, select Mail/Preferences... from the Mac Mail menu bar. The Preferences window will appear.

9. In the Preferences window, select Signatures from the list of menu icons. The Signatures list window will appear.

10. From the Signatures list column, select the email for which you want to create a new signature.

11. Beneath the second column, select the "+" button to add a new signature. Enter a name where prompted.

12. Now close the Signatures (Preferences) window and Quit out of the Mail program. (Mac Mail needs to restart as you complete the final steps.)

The End Game. (Do this in Finder.)

13. Using the Finder (file browser) application, navigate to the following folder:/Library/Mail/Signatures

14. Inspect the "Date Created" column for the files in the Signatures folder. (Notice these signature files are webarchive files!)

15. Find the webarchive (signature file) with the most recent date under "Date Created". (This will be the signature file you created as a placeholder in Step 11 above.)

16. Select the webarchive file with the most recent creation date and then copy the filename. (Note: This step requires you to copy the name of the file; not the file itself.)

17. Now, find the signature file you created earlier in Step 6. (i.e., myemailsig.webarchive) and replace its filename with the filename copied from Step 16.

18. As a final step, copy the file from Step 17 and replace the "placeholder" file in the folder under /Library/Mail/Signatures.

Your custom email signature will appear as a selectable item the next time you try creating an email message.

I hope this and the video helps!

If this was helpful, then you'll also like all this content on MelAclaro.com:

December 04, 2009

I came across Jon Morrow's guest post on ProBlogger last night and it rung a bell with me because it relates to the use of speech recognition software. In my web video training productions I've occasionally resorted to the benefit of speech recognition software to create transcripts from the talent in our productions. In the video below, Jon gives a great primer about his recommendations, as well as a demo on the use of Dragon Naturally Speaking (version 10) to write his blog posts.

The technology has continued to improve over the years. And, since my purchase of Dragon Naturally Speaking (version 9) last year, I believe Jon when he says that Dragon Naturally Speaking version 10 is easily twice as good.

The video below is well worth taking some time to view. But, for some of you "bottom line" types ;) I took the liberty of including a timecode index so you can fast forward to key sections.

~3:00 Hardware is key to optimizing efficiency with speech recognition software. ~4:40 Today you can buy everything you need for less than $100. ~6:00 Recommended hardware... especially USB sound pods vs. just a sound card. It makes a huge difference in accuracy.~7:30KnowBrainer.com as an online resource for recommendations. But, check out also eMicrophones.com for price comparisons.~9:05 Speed and power of your computer can make a difference.~10:20 About choosing speech recognition software.~11:00 Windows: Dragon Naturally Speaking (v10 is MUCH better over v9). Macintosh: Mac Speech Dictate.~14:15 Demo on what it's like to write a blog post using Dragon Naturally Speaking.

If you liked this, or any of the articles on this site, please subscribe!Are you a fellow "Tweep"? Follow me on Twitter (@melaclaro)Or, connect with me on LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/melaclaro.Got friends? Forward this post or save it to any of the bookmarking sites below.

November 10, 2009

My friend Jenise Cook over at Ridge View Media turned me on to this interview between Gabe Anderson on Articulate's Word of Mouth blog and Mark Dorosz of Knowledge Screen. The interview spotlighted Mark's use of video in eLearning.

I wanted to turn you on to it, as well, for its insight to the relative ease these days of incorporating video in our online training solutions. Now, I don't want to give the impression that "have camera will travel," and your video will seamlessly complement your instructional design. Nah, I think most instructional/video designers will say there's a little more to it. But, once said, I think most of us would also say that it isn't a skill that can't be honed (sorry for the double-negative, there) in a lot less time than it used to "back in the day."

When done right, video provides the missing link between the passion of a classroom instructor and the scalability of self-paced elearning. People sharing their ideas on camera is the norm...A polished video script combined with a well-rehearsed presenter can add a new level of personal engagement and credibility to elearning that we just can’t achieve with Flash animations.

Have you used Articulate's Presenter package? Care to share your experiences about video embedding in elearning? Please share in the comments below.

If you liked this, or any of the articles on this site, please subscribe!Are you a fellow "Tweep"? Follow me on Twitter (@melaclaro)Or, connect with me on LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/melaclaro.Got friends? Forward this post or save it to any of the bookmarking sites below.